Here's what I made with some (tiny quantity) of the pumpkin. This recipe is adapted from one in Amanda Grant's The Joy of Vegan Cooking. It's a top book, and no where near as happy clappy as the title might lead you to think.

a bundle of rice noodles

a kilo or so of pumpkin or squash, cut into mouthful sized pieces

a few chilli flakes

400g can of coconut milk

75g lump of coconut cream

500ml of vegetable stock

a couple of tablespoon of soy sauce

two teaspoons of sugar, preferably soft brown

a handful of bean sprouts

handful of mange tout

a couple of carrots, cut into thin sticks

coriander leaf

For pumpkin, you can substitute any hard squash - butternut, New Zealand blue, whatever. If you can't get the mange tout or beansprouts (out of season, no friendly allotment holder to hand, etc), then use one or the other or substitute some other crunchy veg.

OK! Let's go!

Fire up the oven to 220 centigrade. Drizzle some olive oil over the pumpkin and roast for 40 minutes or so.

Go and sit down for half an hour so while the pumpkin cooks.

Gently heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. Fry the chilli flakes for a minute or so. Be gentle with quantity and time - if the fumes burn your throat while your cooking it, you've got too much or it's too hot :)

Add the coconut milk, coconut cream, and the stock. Simmer and stir until the cream is dissolved. Add the soy sauce and sugar. Season now, if you're inclined.

Drop in the rice noodles, and cook them round a bit. They only take four or five minutes.

Added the bean sprouts, mange tout and carrots. Simmer for another minute.